What is defined as the awareness of words and abilities like blending and segmenting?

The term that accurately describes the awareness of words and abilities like blending and segmenting is phonological awareness. This concept encompasses a range of skills that include recognizing and manipulating various sound units in spoken language, such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes. While phonemic awareness, a subcategory of phonological awareness, specifically refers to the ability to focus on the smallest units of sound—phonemes—and perform tasks like blending and segmenting individual phonemes, the broader term applies to the awareness of sound structures in language as a whole.

Literacy skills and reading skills refer to the broader abilities related to reading and understanding written text, which encompass more than just sound awareness and include comprehension and fluency. Thus, while phonemic awareness is a critical component of early literacy development, it's important to recognize that phonological awareness includes it along with other sound-related skills. Therefore, while the selection of phonemic awareness relates closely to blending and segmenting tasks, phonological awareness is more encompassing of those abilities.